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Today's
Stories
December
10, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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Weekend Edition
December 11 / 12, 2004
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan
What
Food-for-Oil Scandal?
By
JUDE WANNISKI
Once it became clear some months ago
that Saddam Hussein had been telling the truth about not having
weapons of mass destruction or connections to al-Qaida, it should
have been an embarrassment to the neo-conservatives who talked
President George Bush into war with Iraq.
They were not in the least
embarrassed, though, because they had known well before the invasion
that Saddam had done everything he could possibly do to assure
the world that he was no threat to the region, the US and the
world.
Their intent all along was
no secret: They wanted "regime change" to fit their
plans for an American empire, with a permanent outpost in Baghdad.
To do this, they had to clear
out all the obstacles in their path - which meant open assaults
on the international institutions that had been developed to
prevent war, through diplomacy backed by the threat of sanctions.
This meant demeaning the United
Nations, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
(UNMOVIC) inspectors of chemical and biological weapons under
Hans Blix, and the International Atomic Energy Agency under Muhammad
al-Baradai.
France, Germany, Russia and
China had become obstacles to regime change in Baghdad, either
at the UN Security Council or at Nato, or both.
To neutralise them with American
public opinion, the neo-cons used their contacts in the news
media to broadcast the argument that these countries were pursuing
selfish interests related to Iraq`s oil.
Out of this soup came the "oil-for-food
scandal" which now threatens to bring down UN General-Secretary
Kofi Annan and besmirch the UN and its affiliated institutions.
A headline in the 4 December
New York Times warns: "Annan`s post at the UN may be at
risk, officials fear."
It`s clear enough the neo-cons
and the news outlets that do their bidding are behind the "scandal"
story.
In the Times account, Richard
Holbrooke, the ambassador to the United Nations under president
Bill Clinton and an Annan backer, said: "The danger now
is that a group of people who want to destroy or paralyse the
UN are beginning to pick up support from some of those whose
goal is to reform it."
Yes, but what`s going on? Where`s
the scandal?
On the surface, there has yet
to be found a single person with his hand in the UN cookie jar.
All that has appeared to date are assertions that various people
associated with the management of the oil-for-food programme
in Iraq and the UN benefited financially through shady transactions.
It is further alleged that
UN officials looked the other way as Saddam Hussein arranged
kickbacks of billions of dollars that went into foreign bank
accounts, with inferences that he was using the cash to finance
his military machine and international terrorism, build palaces
to aggrandise himself, all the while diverting money from the
intended recipients - the poor Iraqi people.
To put all this in perspective,
remember that Saddam was the duly constituted head of state in
Iraq, his government not only officially recognised by the US
during the Iran/Iraq war, but also was given palpable support
in the war.
Why he invaded Kuwait in 1990
is another story, but it is now absolutely clear his dispute
was only with the emir of Kuwait and not any other country in
the Middle East.
It has now also been shown
that Iraq had met the conditions of the UN Security Council post-Gulf
war resolution which demanded he destroy his unconventional weapons
before economic sanctions could be lifted and the Iraqi government
could resume the sale of oil.
From this vantage point, it
was the UN that took possession of the oil resources of the Iraqi
people.
By rough reckoning, I find
that if the sanctions had been lifted in 1991 (when they should
have been lifted), Iraq would have earned enormous amounts of
money from the sale of their oil. At an average of $10 a barrel
of oil (bbl) over 14 years, they would have collected $126 billion.
At a more reasonable average
over the period of $15 to $20, the Iraqi government would have
been able to pay all its creditors and at the same time enable
the Iraqi people to return to the high living standards they
enjoyed before the Iran-Iraq war (during which, I repeat, the
US supported Iraq).
It was because of the UN economic
sanctions that persisted because of US/British insistence that
the oil-for-food programme came into existence in 1996.
This was partly the result
of UN reports that 1.5 million Iraqi civilians had died because
of the malnutrition and disease engendered by the sanctions.
More directly, it was because
president Clinton bombed Iraq in early September 1996 during
his re-election campaign that year, on the information that Baghdad
had violated the "no-fly zone" over Iraqi Kurdistan.
It turned out Saddam did not
violate the "no-fly zone" but had sent troops on the
ground to Kurdistan at the request of the provincial government,
which had come under attack by Iranian-backed Kurds.
The reason? Economic distress,
with the region suffering from the same malnutrition and disease
afflicting all of Iraq.
The Kurds are the friends of
the neo-conservatives. They had to be helped out of this distress.
Hence, the oil-for-food programme, designed to relieve all Iraqi
citizens, but mostly Kurds, who would get the lion`s share of
the relief from the oil revenues.
I`m not sure about all the
details of how the programme was managed in the years since.
But when the neo-cons raised the corruption issue at the UN through
their friends in the news media, Annan finally saw he had to
respond.
He said he would investigate
the allegations and persuaded former Federal Reserve chairman
Paul Volcker - arguably the most respected, squeaky clean political
figure in America - to undertake the investigation and make a
report, which is expected sometime next month.
Annan has rejected calls for
his resignation coming from a US Republican Senator Norman Coleman
of Minnesota.
Without naming him, it was
clearly Coleman to whom he referred at a press conference last
weekend when he said: "My hope had been that once the independent
investigative committee had been set up [under Volcker], we would
all wait for them to do their work and then draw our conclusions
and make judgments. This has not turned out to be the case."
Why were Annan`s hopes dashed
by Coleman, a freshman senator who chairs the permanent subcommittee
on investigations?
My educated guess is that the
neo-cons who continue to have serious influence on the Bush administration
through Vice-President Dick Cheney`s office, knew full well that
if the Volcker commission did its job honestly, it would be able
to report that the oil-for-food programme worked pretty much
as it was designed to work.
It would have found that nothing
criminal or corrupt was done and that even Saddam had done nothing
any other head of state in his shoes would not have done under
similar circumstances.
It is perfectly obvious that
Coleman saw a chance to make a splash with assertions that corruption
at the UN was already a known fact.
His "smoking gun"
was the news that Kofi Annan`s son received payments of $150,000
over several years from a company that was a contractor in the
oil-for-food programme.
Where did this news come from?
The New York Sun, a tiny newspaper founded by Canadian mogul
Conrad Black four years ago as a mouthpiece for the neo-cons.
Richard Perle, the most prominent
of the neo-con intellectuals who misled Bush to war with Iraq,
has been a long time partner of Conrad Black and a director of
the Jerusalem Post, one of Black`s many media holdings.
Perle is also the guiding light
for Rupert Murdoch`s Fox News media empire, plus the National
Review, and a galaxy of staff members of both political parties
in the US Congress.
Claudia Rosette, who writes
for the Wall Street Journal`s editorial page, was assigned to
take on Volcker and in several articles has practically painted
him as a lapdog of Kofi Annan, at the very least a foot-dragger
who should already be able to condemn the UN for corruption.
The game plan is of course
to force Volcker to issue a report that smears the UN and threatens
it with a cut-off of US funds unless there is a house cleaning.
But what if Volcker finds that
the only "wrong" was committed by the Baghdad government
in selling Iraq`s own oil to its neighbours, particularly to
Turkey and Jordan, and that the revenues were deposited in state
bank accounts and used for legitimate state reasons?
We also know the oil that went
through the hands of the UN agency set up to make sure the revenues
went to the people, not to the Iraqi government, also had to
have the cooperation of Baghdad in lifting the oil and delivering
it.
A 2.5% "kickback",
as it has been termed by Rosett, Coleman and the neo-con press
corps, can be more properly be termed a "fee" for facilitating
this process.
If these fees were paid into
the government, not to numbered bank accounts, the regime would
have to be judged clean on that count by Volcker. He is in a
tight spot.
What about the damning report
of Charles Duelfer and his Iraqi Survey Group, which announced
last month that Saddam Hussein destroyed all of his weapons of
mass destruction and their programmes in 1991?
In his report, he also brought
up the oil-for-food programme, which was never part of his mission
when he was appointed by Bush to check further into Iraq`s WMD
intentions.
Duelfer, who could not pretend
to have found WMD when none existed, clearly used the oil-for-food
programme to distract attention from his central finding.
The report gratuitously contained
the thesis that if Saddam someday wanted to rebuild his WMD capabilities,
he could be using the programme to that end, with the complicity
of the French, Russians, Chinese, United Nations and major oil
companies.
Logic should tell you, though,
that the neo-cons have been behind this hoax from the start,
that they never intended to lift the sanctions on Iraq even while
knowing back in 1991 that Saddam almost certainly had complied
with that first UN resolution.
The Iraqis who are in a position
to clear all this up and demonstrate that while certain transactions
might appear suspicious on the surface, but can be fully explained,
are not available for testimony.
The regime is under lock and
key and not available to Rosette or Coleman. Volcker presumably
has access to them, but is not sharing his findings with the
US Congress, which he is not required to do.
His report to the UN will be
made public and judgments can then be made. It may be there is
no scandal at all. Just another trick of the neo-conservatives
to blow away anyone who gets in the way of their plans for a
global empire.
Jude Wanniski is a former associate editor of The
Wall Street Journal, expert on supply-side economics and founder
of Polyconomics, which
helps to interpret the impact of political events on financial
markets.
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
|